Raw milk: Helpful or harmful?

Since 1987, it has been illegal to sell milk that has not been pasteurized via interstate commerce. Since this is a federal law and deals only with interstate commerce, raw unpasteurized milk is legally available in at least 27 states plus a few others where creative methods are used to exploit loopholes. There are many proponents of the value of raw milk, and its widespread availability has allowed for increasing usage. However, all federal government agencies, including the FDA and the CDC, as well as many medical societies and most of the country’s scientific establishment, believe that drinking raw milk is dangerous to your health and can lead to serious illness and even death.

So what’s going on here, and who should you believe? Let’s start by explaining pasteurization. This is a process whereby raw milk is briefly heated to very high temperatures in order to kill any bacteria present. Why is this necessary? Picture a cow or a cow pasture and you will surely think of manure. Lots of manure. Manure contains lots of bacteria, many of which are potentially harmful. It is essentially impossible to collect milk without it being contaminated with fecal bacteria. A partial list of these pathogens includes: E coli -O157:H7 (the bad E coli you hear about on the news), HTT Salmonella (it’s not just from chickens and eggs), Listeria, Campylobacter and Brucella. Remember, no matter how clean they might try to keep a dairy operation, it’s a far cry from a sterile procedure. Just think for a minute about the elaborate precautions that are taken to avoid bacterial contamination during surgery, and remember that surgical infections still occur in spite of it all. If you think that any dairy, no matter how responsible or concerned they might be is taking anywhere near the precautions they do in an OR, you are mistaken. It is simply not possible to do. (Sterilize a barn, the cows, the equipment, the human personnel? Day after day? Morning and night? I don’t think so.)

Because of the impossibility of harvesting sterile milk, pasteurization was developed and perfected. But many raw milk advocates claim that the pasteurization process is so harsh as to destroy the nutritional value of milk. They believe that pasteurized milk is less nutritious, more allergenic and more liable to cause lactose intolerance. They also claim that raw milk contains antibacterial components that render pasteurization unnecessary. Unfortunately, however, there is no scientific support for such claims. Studies have found only minor nutritional differences between raw and pasteurized milk, which are insignificant. Raw and pasteurized milk are equally allergenic (they contain the same proteins), both contain the same amount of lactose (meaning that lactose intolerant people can’t drink either type), and raw milk has not been shown to contain antibacterial chemicals.

You probably can see where I’m going with this, but maybe you want more facts. Let’s look at the cases of raw milk associated illnesses. From 1998 to May 2005, the CDC identified 45 outbreaks of foodborne illness that implicated unpasteurized milk, or cheese made from unpasteurized milk. These outbreaks accounted for 1,007 illnesses, 104 hospitalizations and two deaths. This is based on information in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for the week of March 2, 2007. The actual number of illnesses was almost certainly higher because not all cases of illness are recognized or reported.

One of the biggest proponents of raw milk is the Weston A. Price Foundation. Space does not allow me to cover all of their information, but if you want to read their side of the story visit their Web site. Here’s a brief look at their claims: “Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.” If you want to read a contradictory point of view of these claims, please see this report on the FDA Web site.

Personally, I can’t see any reason to risk you and your family’s health by drinking unpasteurized raw milk. Now before you write in to remind me of the hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and other problems with mass produced milk, let’s remember this: there are basically three types of milk you can buy; namely, pasteurized mass produced milk, pasteurized organic milk and unpasteurized raw milk. If you are concerned about cows and the additives that go into their food, which may be present in their milk, it does not mean you have to consume raw milk. Nowadays, you can buy pasteurized organic milk in nearly all supermarkets.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Zimney, MD

Ed is a physician with more than 30 years of experience. He’s held positions in drug advertising review, drug safety surveillance, medical information and marketing with several bio/pharmaceutical companies.